Over the last four decades, pollsters have been asking people whether they think the country is “heading in the right direction.”
In 1980, as President Jimmy Carter was finishing his first term, 79% thought we were on the wrong track. Carter lost decisively to Ronald Reagan. In 2008, George W. Bush was finishing his second term in the White House. Only 11% believed the country was on a positive course. That year the Republican nominee, John McCain, lost decisively to Barack Obama.
This year the electorate is again in a foul mood. In July, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 19% of Americans think the country is headed in the right direction; 72% think we’re on the wrong track.
What’s interesting about these numbers is that, year in and year out, members of both parties and independents as well share these sentiments about equally. It is when you ask them follow-up questions about what’s wrong with the country that you find a nation at war with itself.
Currently, among those who think we’re heading in the wrong direction, a Republican will tell you it’s because there is too much regulation of small businesses or farmers, or the disintegration of morals, coddling of illegal immigrants or violent crime in our cities.
A Democrat who thinks we are off track will tend to blame the police for abusing racial minorities, or glass ceilings limiting opportunities for women, or discrimination against gays, contempt for science, or corruption in high places.
This gulf between partisan tribes makes for a combustible politics. It presents lawmakers with daunting challenges as they try to enact relief for unemployed workers or reform criminal justice codes. In short, it paralyzes government, especially at the national level.
A half-century ago, the United States was undergoing a similar frightening ordeal. It began quietly, with a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters. Gradually though, it took on ominous tones. Who were these thugs, and what were they looking for? Who sent them?
The 1972 presidential election intervened. President Nixon won decisively. But the break-in at the Watergate Hotel wouldn’t go away. Intrepid young reporters, working for the Washington Post, beavered away. Pretty soon “all the president’s men,” and gradually the president himself, were enmeshed in a huge scandal. The cover-up was worse than the break-in.
By the spring of 1974, incredibly, Nixon’s presidency was broken. What finished it was a meeting in the Oval Office between Nixon and three Republican members of Congress, Senators Barry Goldwater and Hugh Scott, and House member John Rhodes. Together they informed the president that the evidence of his criminal acts was so strong that his impeachment was guaranteed and the necessary 34 votes in the Senate to avoid conviction and removal were not there. Not even close.
Nixon realized that, though he was never impeached, never formally found guilty by the U.S. Senate, his presidency was over. He had no alternative. He had to resign.
The parallel to the crisis now confronting us is different. The principal difference is that Republicans in Congress show little or no willingness to bring the current president to account.
For what?
For habitual lying.
For cozying up to Putin.
For repudiating the Paris Accord on climate change.
For using the White House as a prop for his campaign.
For interfering with the Postal Service to discourage voting by mail in the midst of a pandemic.
Etc., etc., etc.
Having precious little support from Republicans in Congress for dealing with these abuses by the impeachment process, voters must take the fight into what the Supreme Court once called the “political thicket.”
But we must be realistic. To effectively counter the ineptitude, lies and corruption of the Trump administration, a win in the Electoral College and in the battle for control of the Senate will have to be decisive. Even then, it will be challenged tirelessly, in the courts, in the electronic media and in the press, and doubtless in the streets.
We cannot expect it to be resolved as the 2000 election was, when Al Gore gallantly accepted the highly dubious Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore. Even if the courts render decisions favorable to the Democrats, Trump will mount his 2024 campaign immediately. (Think Andrew Jackson vs. John Quincy Adams in 1824-1828.)
We’re in for a long struggle for the soul of our nation. We’ve got the leaders we need for the struggle ahead, people like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Michelle and Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Cory Booker and Ben Sasse, Charlie Baker and Andrew Cuomo, Stacey Abrams and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Roberts. We need to support them. We the people must join the fight for a more perfect union, for the country we love.
Whoever wins on Nov. 3, the fight for the soul of our nation will go on. It must be fought in a spirit consistent with the values of the Abrahamic faiths many of us avow. We must treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves. We must love our political enemies.
Don Robinson can be reached at drobinso@smith.edu